parliament

Syllables: par·lia·mentUK/ˈpɑːləmənt//ˈpɑɹləmənt/

parliament noun: a formal council summoned (especially by a monarch) to discuss important issues.

Image: Amir Rabbani, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

parliament (countable and uncountable, plural parliaments)

(historical) A formal council summoned (especially by a monarch) to discuss important issues.
- By the 13th Century, a parliament was when kings met up with English barons to raise cash for fighting wars - mostly against Scotland.2014, “A brief history of the UK Parliament”, in BBC News
In many countries, the legislative branch of government, a deliberative assembly or set of assemblies whose elected or appointed members meet to debate the major political issues of the day, make, amend, and repeal laws, authorize the executive branch of government to collect and spend money, and in some cases exercise judicial powers; a legislature.
- The row started over who will run for parliament in a wealthy rightwing constituency on the left bank in Paris, a safe seat for Sarkozy's ruling UMP.2011 December 14, Angelique Chrisafis, “Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 19 Apr 2016
A particular assembly of the members of such a legislature, as convened for a specific purpose or period of time (commonly designated with an ordinal number – for example, first parliament or 12th parliament – or a descriptive adjective – for example, Long Parliament, Short Parliament and Rump Parliament).
- Following the general election, Jane Doe took her oath of office as a member of the nation's fifth parliament.
- The acts made in the first Parliament of our most high and dread soveraigne Charles, by the grace of God, King of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. […]1633, John Hay, editor, The Acts Made in the First Parliament of our Most High and Dread Soveraigne Charles, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith...
(collective) A gathering of birds, especially rooks or owls.
- "The people at home call it a rook's parliament when a whole crowd of rooks settle on some bare, wide common, and sit there as if they were consulting, not feeding, only stalking about with drooping wings, and solemn black cloaks."1866, [Charlotte Mary Yonge], chapter III, in The Heir of Redclyffe […] In Two Volumes, volume I, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, 443 & 445 Broadway, →OCLC, page 32
- Man is not the random collection of atoms with no opportunity for redemption. A mere school of fish, a gaggle of geese, a pride of lions, and a congress of baboons—am I to believe these lower primates are my ancestors? And if I should ask a parliament of owls, what might they say?2015 January 5, Desmond Mattocks, “Seeking Meaning”, in The Last Word of America: The World in Context of America, Bloomington, Ind.: WestBow Press, →ISBN, page 97
(historical) Parliament cake, a type of gingerbread.
- He […] was disposed to spoil little Georgy, sadly gorging the boy with apples and parliament, to the detriment of his health—until Amelia declared that George should never go out with his grandpapa unless the latter promised solemnly, and on his honour, not to give the child any cakes, lollipops...1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC
- A certain boy leaning up against me would not allow my elbow room, and struck me very sadly in the stomach part, though his own was full of my parliament.1869, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, chapter II, in Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. […], volume I, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, […], →OCLC, page 9
(UK) a length of time for which a parliament is summoned, in modern times therefore the period between two consecutive elections.
- This parliament has been more scandal-filled than any other in history.

Proper noun capitalized: Parliament

Parliament

Alternative letter-case form of parliament, a specific parliament, particularly that of England or the United Kingdom.

parliament meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

parliament in Hindi

institution with elected or appointed members: संसद sansad

parliament in Tamil

institution with elected or appointed members: நாடாளுமன்றம் nāṭāḷumaṉṟam

parliament in Marathi

institution with elected or appointed members: संसद sausad

parliament in Urdu

institution with elected or appointed members: مَجْلِس majlis, پارْلِیمان pārlīmān, مَجلِسِ شُوریٰ majlis-i śūrā

More languagesFewer languages

parliament in Bengali: সংসদ śoṅśod, মজলিস mojoliś
parliament in Telugu: పార్లమెంట్లు pārlameṇṭlu
parliament in Malayalam: പാർലമെന്റ് pāṟlamenṟŭ
parliament in Kannada: ಸಂಸತ್ತು saṃsattu
parliament in Sinhala: පාර්ලිමේන්තුව pārlimēntuwa
parliament in Pashto: پارلمان pārlamān, پارلېمېنټ pārlemenṭ
parliament in Tagalog: batasan, parlamento
parliament in Arabic: مَجْلِس majlis, بَرْلَمَان barlamān
parliament in Malay: parlimen
parliament in Indonesian: parlemen, dewan perwakilan
parliament in Thai: รัฐสภา rát-tà-sà-paa, สภา sà-paa
parliament in Vietnamese: nghị viện, nghị trường, quốc hội
parliament in Myanmar: လွှတ်တော် hlwattau, ပါလီမန် paliman

Examples of parliament in a sentence

[T]he army under Lambert again thrust the Rump Parliament out of doors, and commenced a new military government, by means of a committee of officers, called the Council of Safety.1834, Walter Scott, Tales of a Grandfather (Waverley Tales; 49), Parker's edition, volume I, Boston, Mass.: Samuel H[ale] Parker, →OCLC...
He'd seen a parliament of rooks a hundred strong fall on and kill one of their number amongst the nodding barley rows, and had been shown a yew that had the face of Jesus in its bark.2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, published 2016, page 122:

All 40 example sentences with parliament

Forms of parliament

Noun
plural	parliaments
alternative form	Parliament
alternative form (obsolete)	parlament
Proper noun
alternative form	Parl.

Plural of parliament: parliaments

Origin of parliament

From Middle English parlement, from Anglo-Norman parliament, parlement, parliment and Old French parlement (“discussion, meeting, negotiation; assembly, council”), from parler (“to speak”) + -ment (“-ment”, suffix forming nouns from verbs, usually indicating an action or state resulting from them) (from Latin -mentum). Compare Medieval Latin parlamentum, parliamentum (“discussion, meeting; council or court summoned by the monarch”), Italian parlamento and Sicilian parramentu.

Words formed from parliament

Phrases with parliament

Questions about parliament

What does parliament mean?: Parliament means a formal council summoned (especially by a monarch) to discuss important issues.
What is parliament in Hindi?: Parliament in Hindi is संसद (sansad). See Parliament meaning in Hindi.
How do you use parliament in a sentence?: [T]he army under Lambert again thrust the Rump Parliament out of doors, and commenced a new military government, by means of a committee of officers, called the Council of Safety.
What part of speech is parliament?: Parliament can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce parliament?: Parliament is pronounced /ˈpɑːləmənt/ (UK).
What is the plural of parliament?: The plural of parliament is parliaments.

Words near parliament in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: parliament (page history and authors); Parliament (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-parliament.ogg, en-au-parliament.ogg.

Cite this entry: “parliament.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/parliament. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.